An eight-hour series envisaged as an epic portrayal of President John F
Kennedy, his wife Jackie and their life in Camelot will be shown on an
obscure cable channel this weekend amid scathing reviews.

With Greg Kinnear as Mr Kennedy, Katie Holmes as his First Lady and a budget of $30 million, expectations had been high. Now, it is widely considered a disaster on the eve of its airing on the ReelzChannel beginning on Sunday.

The History Channel decided to drop the series from its schedule in January, stating that it was "not a fit" for the network. There then followed a humiliating and very public quest to find another channel that would air it.

Although no Kennedy ever made a public statement, there were strong suggestions that the family had tried to quash the project, viewing it as an attack on the troubled American dynasty.

Joel Surnow, executive producer of "The Kennedys" said recently that politics had been a factor and that if Hollywood liberals had been responsible for the same product the History Channel would have had no objection.

"It always felt from the very, very beginning of the project that at one point my known politics as a conservative might be a problem. I'd always assumed the Kennedy family might have an objection to their family story being told by somebody that they perceive to be not friendly to them."

Cari Beauchamp, an historian who viewed the series for the Los Angeles Times, criticised the portrayal of President Kennedy. "He was a complex person, and the only things they emphasise are his womanising and his pill-popping."

USA Today said: "It's not a polemic or a conservative hatchet job. Indeed, while no personal problem is left unexposed, it is a relatively sympathetic portrayal of John, Jackie and Bobby, and a fairly complimentary view of JFK's stint in office.

"Unfortunately, it's also not particularly absorbing .The Kennedys has nothing much new to tell, and tells it over and over again."

Critics had harsh words for Mrs Holmes’ performance, too. Ramin Setoodeh, writing in Newsweek, said Mrs Holmes lacked “the gravitas to pull off the role,” while Variety said she appeared to have been “cast more for her resemblance to the former First Lady than anything else.”

Tim Goodman, a critic for The Hollywood Reporter, said the overall impression left by the performance was of “Katie Holmes having the damnedest time with Jackie’s accent”

“I worked as hard as I could,” Mrs Holmes said in an interview to Vanity Fair, responding to the criticism, “because I loved her.”